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Marvel's most recent success story is about to put another feather in its cap. Guardians of the Galaxy is on pace to become the first film of 2014 to hit $300 million at the domestic box office. This past weekend, Guardians became this summer's top grosser in North America. And before this weekend is over, it will pass Captain America: The Winter Soldier to officially become the highest-grossing movie of the entire year so far in the domestic marketplace.

With the holiday weekend, Guardians should pull down about $18 million or so over four days, at least $14 million of which comes from the Friday-to-Sunday period. Before the start of next weekend, the film will already have raised its domestic haul to roughly $280 million, give or take a couple of million bucks. That positions it to easily coast through most of September, where there is little to challenge Guardians for box office dollars on its way to a finish somewhere north of $300 million. It's foreign fortunes look even more promising, but I'll get to that in a few moments.

Nine films have topped $200 million on domestic charts so far this year, only seven of which were summer releases. The press has made much of the fact 2014's summer is down 15% from last year (and Scott Mendelson offers a good explaination for why that sounds much worse than it really is), and that only three had even played well enough to pass the $250 million mark in North America. So, Guardians of the Galaxy not only helped the summer -- and year -- with an unexpectedly large bump, it will at least prevent the embarrassment of an entire year devoid of a $300 million performer.

With four months left in the year, if 2014 plays out about even with the last two years, then we should see a final domestic tally that's down by between $200-300 million, or around perhaps a 2-3% decline from last year's box office. Notice, that number looks much less severe than the 25% figure for the summer, but then again that would also assume the next several months compare positively to the same period in 2013 and 2012.

So if the final four months end up down from the average, it shouldn't be by too terribly much, I'd imagine. And it's worth noting that there is at least some hope all of these films perform strong enough to actually pass 2013 and 2012 enough to pull even with last year's cumulative year-end domestic box office total. That could be a long shot, but it's certainly within the real of possibility and doesn't even look too improbable. Certainly, after a year of so much hand-wringing and negative news, finishing in the plus column would be a welcome gift indeed.

This is all confined to the domestic front, though. Overseas, China has been delivering consistent good news for studios and the foreign box office has not suffered the same sort of lackluster attitude hampering at-home audience attendance. China's box office was up 25% over last year for the first half of 2014, at more than $2.2 billion. And Guardians of the Galaxy has seen consistent strength in foreign markets, sitting at $245+ million heading into this weekend. But as impressive as that is, the film has yet to open in China, Japan, Germany, Italy, or a few other markets -- markets that added about $150 million to Captain America: The Winter Soldier's box office earlier this year. Guardians needs only about one-third of that to hit $300 million, and judging from the reactions in other countries it's a safe bet it won't be leaving two-thirds of that amount on the table. If anything, there's a very real chance the latest Marvel film could pull in more than Captain America was able to, in light of Guardians having the sci-fi/fantasy elements and a less U.S.-focused cast of heroes and locals.

It seems obvious Guardians should be able to take at least $100 million from those remaining markets, while it continues to add to its cume from the places it's already showing. I don't think it'll finish its foreign run with anything less than $370 million, and it isn't remotely a stretch to think it could hit $400 million. That would place Guardians of the Galaxy's final worldwide box office at between $670-700 million, good enough to end up in the year's top-ten highest grossing films.

That's a stunning performance for a brand new franchise with no recognizable characters or household-name lead stars, full of edgier comedy and an array of -- to put it mildly -- weird characters including a talking raccoon and a sentient tree hero. To put that into perspective for you, that means the Guardians will only be behind The Avengers, Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Captain America on the list of highest-grossing superhero films of all time. They will pass everyone else in their very first outing.

Here's the trailer, if you're among the folks who still haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet...

What did you think of Guardians of the Galaxy, dear readers? And what's your reaction to this summer's offerings of films? Sound off in the comments below!